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Recognition Strategies
Key Takeaways
- Giving your employees a linked recommendation is a sure way to increase employee retention by earning their loyalty.
- Companies can motivate their employees and increase performance by recognizing their strengths and providing them with avenues to use them and improve on them.
- Making a short film that features employees that need to be recognized is another way to improve employee satisfaction.
- Another unique way to connect with employees is to give them a "Gift of Acceptance."
- Lastly, companies can recognize employees is by giving them nicknames.
Introduction
A wealth of information exists on how organizations can increase performance/ job satisfaction/ retention through various formal and informal recognition strategies. Below are a few unique recognition strategies that we were able to identify that can increase performance, job satisfaction, and retention of employees. The research has focused on strategies aimed at increasing employees' pride and sense of identity. Recognition strategies based on awarding employees have been left out of the research.
Write a Linkedin Recommendation
- One of the key drivers for employee engagement is career development and growth. Therefore, companies can use this driver to recognize and engage with their employees by writing LinkedIn recommendations for them.
- Giving your employees a linked recommendation is a sure way to increase employee retention by earning their loyalty. Writing a LinkedIn recommendation might seem counterproductive to most people because it provides your employees with a platform that they can use to look for employment elsewhere.
- However, writing such a recommendation shows employees that their talents are valued and recognized. It also indicates that you trust your employees and have confidence in them.
- Therefore, employees will feel valued and would love to say in such a workplace that their worth is known.
- Furthermore, your employees will respect the organization more for caring for their careers and not just their bottom lines.
Professional Development
- Recognizing employees by offering them professional development opportunities builds on how career development and growth drive employee engagement.
- Companies need to acknowledge that their employees' personal growth is just as significant as the company's growth.
- Therefore, company leaders can enroll employees in online/offline courses geared to better their skills as a way to recognize them.
- Additionally, leaders can motivate their employees and increase performance by recognizing their strengths and providing them with avenues to use them and improve on them.
- A survey from Strengths @ Work Survey pointed out that "71% of employees who believe their managers can name their strengths feel engaged and energized by their work."
- One way to recognize employees' strengths is by letting employees pick up upcoming special projects based on their strengths.
- Additionally, employees will feel recognized by being asked to serve on a culture committee or mentor a new employee.
- Therefore, the above avenues will offer professional development opportunities to employees where they get to try new things and build their skills.
Feature Your Employees in a Short Film
- Making a short film that features employees that need to be recognized is another way to improve employee satisfaction. The film made should be shared with everyone.
- The film should star the company employees. It can also be a platform for them to share their experiences about the company.
- The film will make the employees feel more connected to the company.
Gift of Acceptance
- Another unique way to connect with employees is to give them a "Gift of Acceptance."
- A gift of acceptance can be as simple as giving your employees business cards.
- The company can use business cards to recognize employees. It can extend business cards to all employees and not just the ones that engage with customers daily.
- Employees will value the gesture because business cards hold social stature.
- Another gift of acceptance that employees will value is an inclusion on the company's "About Us" page. In such cases, employees feel like part of the company's bigger picture.
Use of Nicknames
- Another way to recognize employees is by giving them nicknames.
- "Nicknames are a really nice way of showing somebody that you notice and appreciate them."
- It is, however, important to remember that the nicknames given should be kind and thoughtful.
- It is also imperative to base the nicknames of the employees being recognized on their professional strengths.
Research Strategy
During this research, we identified that most research on employee recognition focused on rewarding employees. We, therefore, had to depend on human resource companies and expert opinions to come up with a list of employee recognition strategies that do not rely on rewarding the employees. Therefore, we scoured through various proposed methods of recognizing employees and identified a few that focused on employees' identity or pride. Expert blogs proved useful for this research since they listed a variety of ways of recognizing employees. We, therefore, scoured through these lists and corroborated the information with other websites, and provided just a few that we thought would help recognize employees without giving them awards.